He was treated by the somewhat savage
method of the surgery of the time. Dr. George E. Ellis,
from whom I had the story, went to see him one day at his
house on Park Street and found the old man lying on his bed
with a weight hanging from his foot, which projected over
the bed, to keep the bones in their place and the muscles
from contracting. He said to Mr. Quincy's daughter: "You
have been shut up here a long time. Now go and take a walk
round the Common and let me stay with your father." Miss Quincy
went out and the old man kept Dr. Ellis so full of interest
by his cheerful and lively talk that he never once thought
to ask him how he was getting along. When Miss Quincy returned,
he took his leave and had got downstairs when the omission
occurred to him. He went back to the chamber and said to
Mr. Quincy: "I forgot to ask you how your leg is." The old
fellow brought his hand down with a slap upon the limb and
said: "Damn the leg. I want to see this business settled."
When Felton was inaugurated as President, Gov. Banks in performing
his part of the ceremony of presenting the charter and the
keys to the new officer alluded in his somewhat grandiloquent
way to four of Felton's predecessors, Everett, Sparks, Walker
and Quincy, who were upon the stage.
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